Review by Bronwyn Cook
“And the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical goes to……Avenue Q”
Twenty years ago, a musical with only three human characters but eleven puppets toppled the hot favourite, a show you may have heard of recently…Wicked, to win the biggest theatre award there is (as well as Best Book and Best Score).
And although Avenue Q went on to run for another 6 years on Broadway, 10 years off Broadway, 4 years on the West End and many international productions, it maybe isn’t quite as popular (see what I did there) as the show it beat out for the Tony.
Last seen in Australia in 2009 (for which it won a number of our Tony Awards equivalent – the Helpmann), the down-and-out inhabitants of Avenue Q (a fictionalised outer borough of New York) have returned to Melbourne, courtesy of Andrew Gyopar’s new commercial musical theatre company AG Theatre.
Staged at the historical National Theatre in St Kilda, I was curious to see how the twenty+ year old material holds up, having myself first seen the show in London in 2007.
The answer – some parts fine, some parts not so fine.
The basic premise of the show is this. Imagine a South Park / Team America: World Police version of Sesame Street. Where you see puppets having sex, homeless puppets, broke puppets, very obvious call-outs to the oft-discussed relationship of Bert and Ernie, and blatant jokes about racism and homosexuals. This is not the cheery side of life.
Shows that include societal views and pop culture references of their time can run the risk of that particular material becoming irrelevant and damaging the flow and intent of the production if not carefully updated.
This is where Avenue Q is showing its age. I bet many of the references – including having to introduce kindergarten aged kids to the concept of the internet, the concept of a ‘mix tape/cd’ and having a character called Gary Coleman and referencing his life multiple times – went over people’s heads entirely, causing a few jokes to fall very flat.
The biggest part of the show plot that is not so fine is about being about if it’s okay to be gay. I’d like to think that as a society as a whole, we have long since moved past this discussion. I know that in many parts of the world, gay rights remain an issue, but I also know that since 2004, there has been significant shifts in our thinking.
Another storyline in Avenue Q revolves around racism, which I believe continues to be just as important an issue today as it did twenty years ago. The show looks at racism from several angles, including some of the puppets being of a different race (monsters), to the Gary Coleman character and another one of the human characters portrayed as a “stereotypical” Asian named Xmas Eve.
However, on the whole the main message of the show – which for me is, it’s okay not to have a purpose, love & acceptance of your fellow man and monster, and sometimes life can suck – still hits home. And the show remains DAMN funny.
What I’ve always found fascinating about about Avenue Q is how the puppeteers, working three different types of puppets – rod puppets, live-hand puppets and mechanised / free-hand puppets – somehow manage to both blend into the background but at the same provide a full on-stage presence for their puppets.
Unlike Sesame Street, the puppeteers are not hidden behind props or scenery, but are fully on-stage with their puppets. Whilst they are dressed in black and are not meant to be the acting focus, you can’t help admire how they work with their puppets – especially in their body movements.
My two particular favourites were Cassie Ogle as Lucy The Sl*t , and Jonathon Shilling as Rod. For me, they stole the show with their on stage physical embodiment of their puppets.
As the two ‘lead’ puppets, Princeton – puppeted by Harley Dasey and Kate Monster – puppeted by Zoe Crisp, brought the right amount of innocence, heart and soul to their characters.
The three human characters – Brian (Matthew Tomlin), Xmas Eve (Chiew-Jin Khut) and Gary Coleman (Stephanie Lacerna, making her musical theatre debut) – do an exceptionally fine job performing against the puppets, ever breaking the illusion that they are actually acting alongside a (well constructed) piece of felt.
Trekkie Monster, puppeted by Andrew McDougall, still has the funniest show in the show, “The Internet is for P*rn”, and the Bad Idea Bears, Perri Espinoza and Darcy Harriss, remain as bad as ever.
Avenue Q staging remains simple but effective, with a couple of set & sound hiccups on opening night – but I’m sure those will be sorted out quick smart.
Just like South Park or Team America: World Police, or even Wicked for that matter, Avenue Q is not for everyone. It’s very clear about that.
What Avenue Q is though is unabashedly unfiltered, hysterically human, brilliantly bold, satirically sassy and full-of-fur-fun (you’ll get it if you see the show).
P.S. And for the Melbourne community an added bonus is having the show staged in the heritage listed National Theatre, which was a real treat to visit (seat widths aside).
For more information and tickets: https://agtheatre.com.au/avenueq/
